Bump – Review

Our rating:

By: Bump Technologies LLC

Version #: 1.0

Date Released: 2009-03-25

Developer: Bump

Price: 0.00

User Rating:

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Bump is one of those application in which one trades privacy for a small degree of convenience.  The program works as such: by holding two iPhones or iPod Touches near each other (the program says that a "bumping" motion with your fists is required.  Even if that is required, I fail to understand the need other than to create a false sense of comradery) the two users can exchange information via their devices.  I view this as dangerous for two reasons.

First, what if you don’t actually want to share the information with a person who puts his or her device in proximity of your device but he or she rather covertly holds their iPhone or iPod Touch near yours.  It’s difficult to control such things.  Suddenly an undesirable has your contact information.

Second, the information is exchanged via Bump’s servers.  This means Bump has the user’s personal information.  What are they doing with this personal information?  They don’t charge for the application itself, so they have to make money somehow.

Not only could the user get personal information from another, but Bump also has a means of exchanging files that are on the iPhone or iPod Touch.  This gets a little bit too creepy for my taste.

While I understand the importance of social networking in this day and age, I confess that I’m a little queasy regarding such a transaction as Bump would foster.  I’m probably not the target audience for this and I think I’ll stick with writing an e-mail address down and sending something later.

Pros: Nice setup.  Simple to use.

Cons: Not sure about security.  Not sure I’d want to share information in such a fashion.